Power pole inspections in Sunraysia

The regional asset manager with Powercor, John Hardy says it's important to keep the poles up to standard in terms of safety and reliability for the customers.

"The assets continue to age and it's important for us to inspect them and make sure they're 100 per cent and replace them as required.

Mr Hardy says his department looks after around 530,000 poles which cover a distance of 80,000 kilometres.

"We inspect our poles once every five years and within that five year period we'll inspect every two and a half years for the poles which are in the higher bushfire rated areas to ensure they're fire safe.

"Deterioration of the wooden cross arms, we might have insulators that might get hit with lightning and get cracked.

According to Mr Hardy the poles are very important "particularly the wooden poles with termites and the rot that gets into them from the moisture in the ground."

"Traditionally we've always had wooden poles in the past, but they're becoming much harder to source. The modern pole we use these days are a concrete pole," he says.